Applying to 🇺🇸 STEM Grad School | Getting Ready

Hi everyone, I'm Dozen~

For those who don't know me yet, here's my background

BS: NCTU EP

MS: UCDavis ECE

I finished my master's a while ago and now work as an engineer in the US

So in this post I'll cover my prep timeline, what you should know during college, and what I'd do differently if I could do it over

📚Intro

First, it's never too early to start preparing. If you're on the study-abroad board, you're probably already thinking about going abroad, so you can start slowly preparing for the TOEFL and GRE

I started thinking about studying abroad around my sophomore year, and back then I also looked into sister schools/exchange programs

But in the end I felt that, more than a short study trip, a full degree abroad fit what I wanted: to go abroad to study seriously and work (and save money). So I decided to just go for the degree

📝What you need to prepare

TOEFL: language test, valid for two years

GRE: kind of like an entrance exam, valid for five years

CV: resume

SOP: personal statement

Recommendation letters

That's just a very brief rundown of the terms. There's plenty of material online on how to prepare, and lots of prep schools/study-abroad agencies

Plus, I prepared all this quite a while ago (definitely not because I'm lazy hahaha🤣

so what I share may not be the latest or most complete information

But if you're still interested in my prep process or takeaways, I'll write a separate post

⏱Prep timeline

Summer before junior year September TOEFL

Summer before senior year September GRE

Senior year, fall October–December SOP, CV

Senior year, fall December Application deadlines

Senior year, spring February Results start coming out

🏫What you can do during college

GPA

If it's not too late, you really, really need to take care of your grades

For an admissions officer, your grades are their first impression of you

When I applied to grad schools in Taiwan through the recommendation-based admission track, professors even said outright that they hadn't read the personal statements, only looked at school name, department, ranking and GPA

The US is probably a bit better and looks at everything (I hope🥹

That said, don't lose heart if your GPA is low. Your internships, lab work, awards and unusual experiences can all set you apart

Research projects

Find the field/lab you want to apply for

If you look at my undergrad major, you'll see I was technically in physics

But I really liked electronics and wanted to go that way for my master's, so I did a research project in an electronics engineering lab. The senior students in the lab also advised me on which courses to take outside my department👌

I think this was a great experience, both for my grad school applications and for my job now

And a recommendation letter from your lab professor is also great application material

🆕Here are the courses I took outside my department in college

I actually went back and dug out my transcript🤣

Junior year: Analog Integrated Circuits AIC, Analog Integrated Circuits Lab AIC LAB

Senior year: Intro to Computer Science (EE), Logic Design, Signals and Systems, RF Integrated Circuits RFIC (grad), Digital Circuits and Systems, Very Large Scale Integration VLSI (grad)

Internships

Work experience is something else you can put in your personal statement and resume to stand out

The summer before senior year I did a two-month summer internship: one month as a course TA and the other doing circuit design👩🏻‍💻

Besides the fact that a letter from your internship supervisor is great application material, experience outside school is especially valuable when you're applying straight out of undergrad

I think my TA experience may have helped me land a TA position later during my master's, and taping out a circuit design is a special skill you can't learn at school

🔖What I'd change if I could do it over

1️⃣Start writing the CV and SOP earlier

I went abroad straight after graduating, and in the fall of senior year I was also preparing for recommendation-based admission to Taiwanese grad schools and taking some electives

The CV and SOP actually take quite a lot of time to write, so the fall of my senior year was total chaos🫠

I still remember the day before one school's deadline: by the light of the only desk lamp in my dorm, I cranked out a pile of documents in the middle of the night and rushed them off just before the deadline

If I did it again, I'd finish the TOEFL and GRE before the end of junior year and work seriously on the SOP and CV in the summer before senior year

2️⃣Apply to more schools

Back then I thought application fees were expensive, and I figured I might not get into my dream schools, so I only applied to 7

But once I actually went abroad, I realized the application fees really aren't much compared with everything else you spend

Some schools (like UMich and USC) really like admitting Taiwanese students, so read other people's experiences and apply to more

3️⃣Retake the TOEFL

Back then I also thought retaking it was expensive, but same as above: after going abroad I realized it's a drop in the bucket

If I did it over, I'd give myself another shot and see if I could get a better score

That's all

I hope this helps a little if you're just starting to prepare or just starting to think about it

If you have any questions, or there's a topic you'd like me to write about, feel free to leave a comment👏

I hope you enjoyed this post. If you're curious about my life in the US, feel free to follow my IG. My goal is to become a San Diego influencer (just kidding XD

See you next time~ bye